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Going through Hard Times

2 Corinthians 1:3-11

We all go through times when things go wrong. You may have experienced hard times: bereavement, injustice, disappointments, health issues, financial problems or relationship breakdown. Why does God allow it? Are there any benefits?

This is the most personal letter the apostle Paul wrote. He reveals his feelings as a man of flesh and blood. He knows what it is to be hurt and depressed. He speaks of troubles, sufferings, distress, hardships, pressure, despair, sentence of death and deadly peril.

Paul knew about persecution. He had been imprisoned, chained with three feet of chain to a Roman soldier. He had been flogged five times with thirty-nine lashes. He had been beaten three times with rods. Once he had been stoned. He knew about hardship – lack of sleep, hunger and thirst. He knew what it was to be cold and naked. He had suffered fatigue and exhaustion. He knew about pressure. He had experienced temptation, sickness and all the trials of life.

This is not a philosophical or even theological discussion of why God allows suffering. He starts with praise. He is not praising God for the suffering nor seeking it. Instead, in spite of it, he is praising God for the positive benefits which have come out of it. He speaks of seven benefits:

1. The benefit of the presence of God

The word for comfort means to encourage, cheer or come alongside. Trouble and persecution can either drive you away from God or closer to him. God is the ‘Father of compassion and God of all comfort.’ As you draw close to him, you find that he does care and that he suffers with you.

2. The benefit of being able to comfort others

Those who have suffered themselves are usually the best equipped to help others in their suffering. When we have a tough time, we often become more compassionate and more willing to empathise, support and help rather than criticise or judge.

3. The benefit of Christian character

Suffering produces ‘patient endurance’. The Greek word means patience, endurance, fortitude, steadfastness and perseverance. As gold is refined by fire and as the pruning of the vine produces fruit, so you become purer and more effective as you experience difficulty.

The playwright, Oscar Wilde wrote, ‘Now it seems to me that love of some kind is the only possible explanation for the extraordinary amount of suffering that there is in the world… because in no other way could the soul of man, for whom the world was made, reach the full stature of its perfection.’

4. The benefit of Christian friendship

The Greek word for ‘share’ refers to partnership. We are all partners in Christ, part of the same body. If localised physical pain affects one’s whole body, it follows that the suffering of one person in the body of Christ will bring pain to all. Conversely, the joy of one person will cause all to rejoice. Ultimately, these shared experiences enrich our lives and teach us how to be a true community.

5. The benefit of learning to trust God

When we are in a time of prosperity, we risk becoming independent or proud and may even start to trust ourselves more than God. But when everything goes wrong and we have reached the end of our own resources, there is nothing more we can do. We are thrown into true dependence on God. God’s strength is made perfect in weakness.

6. The benefit of seeing God’s deliverance

Paul speaks of the three tenses of God’s deliverance: past, present and future. We are free from the despair of the past, free from any fear of the future and able to face the present with faith in God.

7. The benefit of answered prayer

Problems often lead to prayer and prayer often leads to solutions. This in turn leads to God being thanked.

Verse 10 says, ‘He has delivered us… he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope…‘As you help us by your prayers’ ’. Today, you could thank God for all the ways he has delivered you in the past. Bring to God all the major challenges and problems you face in the weeks and months ahead. Commit them into his hands and set your hope on him.

Your prayers make a difference. Pray for those you know who are going through hard timesat the moment – that ‘many will give thanks’ for the ‘gracious favour granted… in answer to the prayers of many’ (v.11).

Prayer

Lord, help me to see the benefits in every difficulty. May I experience your comfort and learn to rely not on myself but on you. Lord, I cry out to you for help today…

References

© Nicky Gumbel, 2024

This reading plan is adapted from the book30 Daysby Nicky Gumbel. It is published by Hodder and Stoughton in the UK, and by HarperCollins Christian Publishing in the USA.